University of Arizona

Purpose:

The intended goal of the course is to provide a safe platform for learners to critically examine societal as well as personal thinking about disability, particularly as future human service professionals. Disability perspectives will be explored through personal narrative and film focusing on disability culture and identity. Narratives chosen for this course represent primarily first person accounts of disability.

Course Objectives:

  • To explore narrative, insider perspectives of disability culture and identity.
  • To explore how these perspectives intersect with larger social systems and service delivery
  • To reflect upon own our roles as human service providers, especially regarding the way we resist or replicate stereotypes about people with disabilities, and ways in which we promote informed, accurate, and respectful ideas.
  • To consider and articulate the meaning we make of the phenomenon of disability.

Commonly Used Texts:

Fries, Kenny. (ed) (1997). Staring Back: The Disability Experience From the Inside Out. Plume.

Grealy, Lucy (1994). Autobiography of a face. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Hockenberry, John (1996) Moving Violations: Wheelchairs, Warzones and Declarations of Independence. Hyperion.

Linton, Simi (2006). My Body Politic: a memoir. University of Michigan Press.

Lewis, Victoria (Ed.) (2006). Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Disabled Playwrights. Theater Communications Group.

McBryde-Johnson, Harriet (2005). Too Late to Die Young. Henry Holt and Co.

Raffo, Susan & Brownworth, Victoria (Eds.) (1999). Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability. Seal Press.

Typical Course Requirements:

This course is reading and writing intensive. There are no objective exams given, and as a result students are expected to:

  • Attend all classes and complete all readings prior to the class session for which they are assigned
  • Prepare questions and lead in-class discussion relating to assigned readings
  • Submit three written assignments that require integration of material covered in and out of class as well as reflecting on personal, critical thinking about disability
  • Plan and participate in a staged reading and facilitated discussion of a script from Beyond Victims and Villains